On August 13, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced that the federal government will require all public servants to be vaccinated, and anyone wishing to fly on an interprovincial flight must be as well.

The mandate is set to be implemented by October at the absolute latest. While some kinks in the new order are being worked out, such as procedures for workers who have health exemptions, the message is clear: the vaccines are here, and you will get it!

“This is a mandatory requirement to go to work in a federal workplace or work in the government of Canada,” Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said.

“Obviously, there will be certain individuals for medical reasons that will not be able to be vaccinated, and the appropriate officials will work with them to ensure that the appropriate measures are in place.”

Despite Canada’s high citizen complicity when it comes to voluntarily receiving experimental gene therapy, Alghabra says that Canadians “must do better,” that 81 percent of eligible Canadians receiving the shot is not enough.

Erin O’Toole, the leader of the Conservative Party, is falling in line with the federal position. On Thursday, O’Toole hastily fired the incumbent conservative candidate for the Yukon territory after it was rumoured he was opposed to vaccine passports. 

While many feared the idea of vaccine passports, nobody expected Trudeau’s government to force the vaccine into the arms of domestic travellers. 

According to Alghabra, this decision will be extended to all Crown corporations and other businesses regulated by the federal government. These sectors will include airlines, banking institutions, railways, telecommunications, and more.

All in all, this mandate will directly affect over 300,000 public servants and potentially millions of other workers who work in federally regulated industries.

However, the mandates will certainly not stop there.

Alghabra has stated that the government is working “as quickly as possible” to institute mandates affecting travellers using interprovincial trains, cruise ships, airplanes, and other forms of federally and commercially regulated travel vehicles.

“Vaccine requirements in the transportation sector will help protect the safety of employees, their families, passengers, their communities and all Canadians. And more broadly, it will hasten Canada’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

Given the speed of the recent mandate announcements and policy creation, it is unlikely that anyone will be left unmolested by the rapid growth of the federal government’s newfound power.

And due to the specific targeting of Canadians who wish to leave their province or country of residence in conjunction with the travel restrictions of foreign nations, it may soon be too late to escape the fast-forming hellscape that is our country.